Sweden has from the highest political level launched a campaign with the objective of convincing the Swedish people that the abstract reasoning of mathematics enters everywhere in both professional and everyday life.

mathematics education in France has more hours of instruction than in any other OECD country

french students who do not succeed well in mathematics get the unfortunate impression that they cannot succeed in any other subject either

to study languages, arts or journalism at university it is in France necessary to pass filters of mathematics tests

in short: more foreign languages and less math.

In other words, in France where mathematics dominates the educational system as no-where

else, it is increasingly becoming understood that enlightenment does not necessarily come through studies of mathematics. Maybe it is not necessary to force all citizen through 12 years of school mathematics. Maybe it is even counter-productive since it gives the wrong signal to most students. Maybe it destroys the possiblitites for the 10-30% of the students who are interested in mathematics to develop their interest and capabilities, since trivialization in math-for-everybody is unavoidable.

Maybe Sweden should look to France, instead of the opposite...because trivalization is the syndrome of Swedish math education...